I went and drove some more and the synchro is definitely fucking me. It basically grinds gears into second, even with moderately slow gear changes. I have to baby it into second for it to not give me this brief sharp grinding sensation as it engages. I'm going to change the transmission fluid tomorrow, and hopefully it will alleviate the synchro issue for a while. I can't afford to rebuild my transmission or get a new one, and my parents probably couldn't really help me out here either at the moment. I'd just be stuck with a car that has to go from first to third, which would kind of ruin it for me. Apparently it's a somewhat common problem on my car so ff. I wonder how much it would cost for a rebuild kit on my transmission. I wouldn't be able to do it one my own, i might end up having to just take it to the stealership.

Edited:

Man i don't know how to do any of this or have any jacks(except my spare tire jack..)

What would the slave cylinder do if it were going out?

I'm going to just try and not stress over this anymore until i change the fluid in the trans. If it still has problems then i will get real serious about it. It started happening with the colder weather, so maybe that's it. It doesn't seem to be as bad after it's got warmed up. (but still there for sure)

I decided to only do an engine swap, not a transmission swap since it adds about 2 Grand that I don't really have to the price. I would rather use that money to work on the engine, the shocks and struts (which need replacement) and new wheels and tires.

I went and drove some more and the synchro is definitely fucking me. It basically grinds gears into second, even with moderately slow gear changes. I have to baby it into second for it to not give me this brief sharp grinding sensation as it engages. I'm going to change the transmission fluid tomorrow, and hopefully it will alleviate the synchro issue for a while. I can't afford to rebuild my transmission or get a new one, and my parents probably couldn't really help me out here either at the moment. I'd just be stuck with a car that has to go from first to third, which would kind of ruin it for me. Apparently it's a somewhat common problem on my car so ff. I wonder how much it would cost for a rebuild kit on my transmission. I wouldn't be able to do it one my own, i might end up having to just take it to the stealership.

Edited:

Man i don't know how to do any of this or have any jacks(except my spare tire jack..)

What would the slave cylinder do if it were going out?

I'm going to just try and not stress over this anymore until i change the fluid in the trans. If it still has problems then i will get real serious about it. It started happening with the colder weather, so maybe that's it. It doesn't seem to be as bad after it's got warmed up. (but still there for sure)

My clutch slave went out recently and i'll tell you, you will notice, when it happened in my truck, whenever you pressed the clutch, the pedal would not come out on its own, you would have to reach down and pull it out, then you have to float gears.

How do you guys feel about 4th gen Trans Ams? They've got quite a bit of power, around 330-340hp from a 350 stock, they've got t tops which I've always wanted and I can finally own a GM Trans Am!

They're not very expensive and the last one rolled of the line in 2002 and its got airbags, 4 wheel disc breaks, modern-ish car so I bet I could convince my parents to let me have one. Have some examples

So today is turning out bad. First, I get into my car and the check engine light is flashing. Luckily it was because of the engine being cold and me driving on a highway.. the light went away after it got warmed up.

Now on my way back home from my destination, the check engine light comes on again and I go "hm, thats weird, engine is warm, and oil is fine". Then, it starts flashing at me and thats when I knew something is wrong.

I get back home, look into the light a bit and it still flashes/stays solid. So, is it a misfire issue or bad plugs? (2003 CVPI <- A real one, not a re-sale [city-vehicle])

I decided to only do an engine swap, not a transmission swap since it adds about 2 Grand that I don't really have to the price. I would rather use that money to work on the engine, the shocks and struts (which need replacement) and new wheels and tires.

Swapping to a 5 speed? Can be done yourself if you have the tools. 2k seems a bit excessive, unless your car is particularly difficult to swap.

It'd be a WS6 with a LS1. And actually the Trans Am puts out around 40-50 more hp than the GT does with a bigger engine. Honestly, I'm not too concerned with safety, just enough so my parents will be satisfied.

Well Spec Miata racing is some of the best racing I've seen so I think they're fine.

We're looking at the Mk2 models, probably the UK 'Sport' spec too which has the 1.8L engine with a tad more power and has a LSD and Bilstein Suspension which should make a good foundation for a project.

We're looking at the Mk2 models, probably the UK 'Sport' spec too which has the 1.8L engine with a tad more power and has a LSD and Bilstein Suspension which should make a good foundation for a project.

I owned a '99 NB, 1.8L sport for about 5 years. Absolutely fantastic car.
You definitely want the BP4W(1.8) and not the B6(1.6). there is much more aftermarket support for the BP.

Depending on what kind of racing you plan on getting into, the best recommendation I can make is to sort out tuning and turbocharge it. The Mazda B series are not like Honda motors, you can drop 10 grand (US$) in the engine and be lucky to make 160hp NA, but with a fraction of that you can make ~250hp reliably. It makes sense seeing that the B6/BP was designed to be a turbo engine.

If you want to get the straight facts about these cars I would recomend signing up to MiataTurbo.net. But be warned, if you make posts asking dumb questions you will be made fun of and banned veryt quickly.
There are other forums out there such as Miata.net and clubroadster.org but they are full of misinformation.

It'd be a WS6 with a LS1. And actually the Trans Am puts out around 40-50 more hp than the GT does with a bigger engine. Honestly, I'm not too concerned with safety, just enough so my parents will be satisfied.

That depends on what year GT youre talking about. The S197s from 05-09 made about 300 even, in '10 it increased by a couple ponies, and '11+ is over 400. Also, used GT500s can be had for not much now if you search around.

Either car is a good choice. With the LS motors you get a ton of aftermarket parts and can build up some pretty impressive NA power on the cheap, then throw a little nitrous on it if you need more power. With the 4.6 Mod motor youre usually going to be looking at forced induction to get real power. The good news is that you can turbocharge an S197 pretty easily. From what I understand, south of 500 can be done reliably on a stock 4.6 bottom end.

Throw some rods and pistons in there and a 4.6 can make some impressive numbers:
(Im pretty sure this is bone stock heads/cams and on pump gas. Im not sure how much boost though.)

10th February 2012
Last edited by Dylan_94; 10th February 2012 at 09:10PM.
Post #427

I look forward to having my transmission fluid changed, but i don't look forward to doing it -_-. It's so fucking cold outside (to me). 35f, feels like 26f. Hopefully it fixes my transmission. If not, then i might just kill myself.

I owned a '99 NB, 1.8L sport for about 5 years. Absolutely fantastic car.
You definitely want the BP4W(1.8) and not the B6(1.6). there is much more aftermarket support for the BP.

Depending on what kind of racing you plan on getting into, the best recommendation I can make is to sort out tuning and turbocharge it. The Mazda B series are not like Honda motors, you can drop 10 grand (US$) in the engine and be lucky to make 160hp NA, but with a fraction of that you can make ~250hp reliably. It makes sense seeing that the B6/BP was designed to be a turbo engine.

If you want to get the straight facts about these cars I would recomend signing up to MiataTurbo.net. But be warned, if you make posts asking dumb questions you will be made fun of and banned veryt quickly.
There are other forums out there such as Miata.net and clubroadster.org but they are full of misinformation.

That depends on what year GT youre talking about.
Used GT500s can be had for not much now if you search around.

Well my time frame is 05 and up (the Trans Am will be a hopeful exception) so I can't afford the new ones.

We're exchanging our Jaaaag X-Type 07 (which has plodded on happily for 51,000 miles bless it) tomorrow for a XF 2009 3.0D Portfolio S with all the bells and whistles installed, the test drive was awesomely smooth and we basically fell in love with it. There's one thing though: any tips when it comes to using keyless entry on cars nowadays? This is going to be our first keyless car, and we've already set the alarm off a couple of times by trying to open the doors while it's unlocked but the key is too far away (which results in a frantic dash to get the keys)

They should just have a piezo beep then eventually it will shut off and lock the doors.

That's what the new Optima does, not sure about Jaaaggs.

Aha, looking through the manual (which jaaaag provides on their website which is fucking awesome) there's this thing called passive locking:

Passive arming
This vehicle is fitted with a passive arming feature which can, if enabled, automatically arm the anti-theft system. Passive arming will automatically arm the perimeter alarm system 30 seconds after the driver's door is closed, provided all doors, bonnet and luggage compartment are closed, the ignition is switched off and there are no valid Jaguar Smart Keys inside the vehicle.
It will also automatically arm the perimeter alarm system 30 seconds after the vehicle is unlocked, if none of the doors or the luggage compartment are opened.
Passive arming will not lock the vehicle, although access to the luggage compartment via the interior or exterior release buttons will be inhibited and the fuel filler flap will be locked.
Passive arming can be disabled/enabled using the touch-screen. See PROGRAMMING THE REMOTE CONTROL (page 21).

One time my civic locked me out. I unlocked the doors with the fob, and got in and put my keys in the ignition and turned them all the way to the position right before it will turn over the engine, and then opened my trunk and got out. Well, the doors will automatically lock after x amount of time if you don't start the car. So i did that, got out of my car to get a rubber floor mat out of the trunk (had my dirty rc car to sit in the passenger floor board), and shut the door behind me. I immediately realized it had locked and i was had my friends house with no spare key (at all).

FORTUNATELY i had opened the trunk to get that mat, and pulled the lever to collapse the back seats and crawled through the trunk. It made me look like a genius.

One time my civic locked me out. I unlocked the doors with the fob, and got in and put my keys in the ignition and turned them all the way to the position right before it will turn over the engine, and then opened my trunk and got out. Well, the doors will automatically lock after x amount of time if you don't start the car. So i did that, got out of my car to get a rubber floor mat out of the trunk (had my dirty rc car to sit in the passenger floor board), and shut the door behind me. I immediately realized it had locked and i was had my friends house with no spare key (at all).

FORTUNATELY i had opened the trunk to get that mat, and pulled the lever to collapse the back seats and crawled through the trunk. It made me look like a genius.

reminds me of my brothers celica, he had shaved doors so we couldn't open them from the outside, I don't remember why, but we pulled over and stopped, engine running, got out of the car...

I owned a '99 NB, 1.8L sport for about 5 years. Absolutely fantastic car.
You definitely want the BP4W(1.8) and not the B6(1.6). there is much more aftermarket support for the BP.

Depending on what kind of racing you plan on getting into, the best recommendation I can make is to sort out tuning and turbocharge it. The Mazda B series are not like Honda motors, you can drop 10 grand (US$) in the engine and be lucky to make 160hp NA, but with a fraction of that you can make ~250hp reliably. It makes sense seeing that the B6/BP was designed to be a turbo engine.

If you want to get the straight facts about these cars I would recomend signing up to MiataTurbo.net. But be warned, if you make posts asking dumb questions you will be made fun of and banned veryt quickly.
There are other forums out there such as Miata.net and clubroadster.org but they are full of misinformation.

It will be used for the odd track day, I have a Racing Puma but that's my daily and we want a project car that hasn't already had everything done to it that it needs. Yea we were definitely getting a 1.8, and as you said we were looking into turbo-charging it somepoint down the line, handling and breaks would be sorted first though I think.

One time my civic locked me out. I unlocked the doors with the fob, and got in and put my keys in the ignition and turned them all the way to the position right before it will turn over the engine, and then opened my trunk and got out. Well, the doors will automatically lock after x amount of time if you don't start the car. So i did that, got out of my car to get a rubber floor mat out of the trunk (had my dirty rc car to sit in the passenger floor board), and shut the door behind me. I immediately realized it had locked and i was had my friends house with no spare key (at all).

FORTUNATELY i had opened the trunk to get that mat, and pulled the lever to collapse the back seats and crawled through the trunk. It made me look like a genius.

One time Jap left his keys at a cafe we went to and when we got all the way back to his car across town we learned that my EF key worked in his EG. :v